How to Post an Image or Picture on Craigslist

How to Post an Image or Picture on Craigslist. Photo modified from art by trialsanderrors

Recently I saw that Seth Godin mentioned Craigslist does not support picture hosting. It seems silly since pictures really help you sell and advertise – key Craigslist functionality.

He suggested that Craigslist could write a FAQ on how to post photos there. Considering I frequently recommend that people advertise in their local Craigslist, I am often describing how to put images on those ads.

How to Post an Image or Picture on Craigslist

So, you don’t know how do get a picture on to Craigslist. That’s OK, it’s easy to do. Here’s your step-by-step guide on putting images up there to really make those submissions stand out.

Craigslist recently changed their photo posting policies. Adding images using embedded HTML codes only works on a few pages. If you’d like a step-by-step guide on where you can post pictures, how to post pictures, and much, much more, please check out this book.

Step 1: Get the Picture On-Line

You need to have a picture on-line already before you can put it on Craigslist. The easiest and best way is if you already have the picture on your own website. If you don’t have your own website, don’t worry. There are plenty of other free places out there you can put your picture on.

Some things you need to keep in mind when getting that image on-line:

You must own the image. Stealing other people’s or website’s images is illegal.

The image must be sized right so it will fit and load quickly.

The image must be accessible to everyone.

Remember, some places that host images like MySpace or Facebook will not work because those sites do not provide access to those images for everyone. If you want to use an image on a site like Facebook, you will have to move it to a place where it is accessible to everyone. That’s why I really recommend using your own website for hosting the image; you’re in control of everything.

Free Places to Host Your Image

If you can’t put a picture on your website, don’t worry. The steps are the same after this one. There are some free places out there. Try Posterous or Flickr or Picassa. Get your picture on one of those places and write down the location you uploaded it to.

Your own Picture Hosting.

If you have your own website, this is very simple. Just upload the photo and write down the location.

Either way

You should be able to take the location (URL) of that photo – on your own site or someone else’s – and paste it into a new browser and see it.

Example:

Locate the picture on your website.
In my case I am going to use the one above.

Write down the location.
This one is at http://www.CharlotteWebDevelopment.com/Charlotte_Website_Design_Logo.jpg . You’re might be on your own site.

Step 2: Create an HTML Image Tag

Yes, this is coding. But it’s really, really easy! Trust me! You have the location of your image from Step 1, right?

Create an HTML Image tag. That is what will let the browsers know where to look for the image. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit. In fact, you can just copy this code below and change the URL to be your website and file name.

Step 3: Put it in Your Craigslist Post

Now all you have to do is put that code into your Craigslist post as shown in this picture:

After Craigslist publishes your item, you will get a result like the one below:

Hopefully, that all made sense. If not, never worry. I’m here to help. Just write a comment below telling me what your sticking point is and I’ll help you out. If you got it to work, share your success below!

As always, if you have any other website questions at all, please let me know and I’ll do my best to help out. If you’d like to get free tips like this delivered to you via email, please put your address in the form at the top of the page. That will stay absolutely private, I promise. Thanks for reading!

I am trying to post pictures from a message that was sent to me with the pictures on it. It shows it on my phone when I look at it in the photos but not when I go to the photos from Craigslist to get them to post???

I want to get some photos on my craigs list posting & am having trouble. Here’s what I did
Used my pcell phone to take the photo. Emailed the photo to my email on my computer.Went to my email & clicked it open with my photo. Saved the photo to my desktop. Went to craigs list add image button which took me to my desktop. Selected the photo which caused the craigs list icon to spin but photo never loaded.
Help!!

Well, you’re going to have to put your pictures on the web somewhere. If you can find a place to put it (a host) other than your website, you should be able to pick up the directions from there. Try my example on Flickr.

How come every time I try to put an image on Craigslist it come up black with no image. I’ve been try to post things for 3 months and every image is black. Whats wrong with this sight? The pictures use to come up right away….what happened?
It’s so frustrating. Please fix this problem.

Well, you’re going to have to put your pics on the web somewhere. If you can find a place to put it (a host) other than your website, you should be able to pick up the directions from there. Try my flickr example.

I am from another country and very low tech. I take a photo with my phone. How do I transfer the photo from my phone to my computer? Where do I store it on my computer? How do I store it on my computer? Then how do I transfer the image to Flickr?

Question. I post on Craigslist to sell items. I did not have a picture of one of the toys I was selling. I went on ebay found a picture of the item and used it. I received a nastygram from the ebayer demanding I remove the picture and that I was stealing her picture. She had not watermarked it nor was it copyrighted. I suppose that was not the best thing to do but there was continual harassment from her until I removed the picture. She accused me of fraud, conning people. I have sold lots on craigslist. The listing had a list of toys and my ad said shown are some pictures. Never did the ad say these are the exact items. When people come to buy they see what they are getting. I do not mail. What do you think? She was one nasty individual

Lesley, people put a lot of time and effort into their photos. The best practice is to create your own. If you can’t do that, you should ask permission and cite the reference of where you got the photo if they let you use it. I’m sure you put a lot of effort into crafting your Craigslist postings. What if someone just copied your posts and changed the contact info?

My friend took pictures of car I am selling on craigslist…we cannot seem to transfer over to my hp to attach to my posting..Can I send e-mail to her so she can attach…It appears she can not take over my posting,,,,pls help us….

I’m VERY frustrated with my attempts to post images to Craigslist. I make and sell hunting decoys and have taken pictures on my IPhone. I think I am following what you say but still confused. I can move my pictures to my email address – what do I do from there to get the image(s) posted? Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

I created my own ad in Illustrator, CL won’t seem to upload it.
I’ve tried a pdf, eps, jpeg ….nothing works, maybe it’s too big of
file ? I don’t know how to reduce it though.
I just want to be able to take my ad and post to CL each week
without having to create a whole new posting each time I post.
Any thoughts !

This should be easy but I spent 1/2 hour yesterday trying to attach my photo in a folder in my email to respond to a craigslist email. So far I have asked a dozen people and NO ONE can give me an answer, yet everyone in personals demands a photo. This is more frustrating than any test I took in college

This article is more about getting an image to appear in an advertisement rather than responding to an email from one. I think that depends on the email client you are using. For example, Lotus Notes, Gmail, Outlook, etc. There should be a help button inside whatever email client you are using.

Connor, Craigslist changed terms to prevent some categories from using html to embed images. For more information, please check out my new site devoted to posting on places like Craigslist – http://www.PostingTips.com

GET THE NEWSLETTER

To get FREE updates and information from Posting Tips, please enter your name and email below. I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. I HATE SPAM, and you can unsubscribe at anytime.

Master Craigslist!

Need help standing out on Craigslist? This guide will get customers clicking and buying!